Week in review: Costa Concordia cruise ship captain tops the news

Follow the link to see our roundup of the top national and international news stories of the week.

News of the week

Here are the top news stories from the past week:

- "It's a tremendous loss for her fans around the world. She'll be missed. A great American singer. Her music defied category." – Etta James’ manager, Lupe De Leon, talking Friday after James died of complications from leukemia. James, the singer of hits such as “At Last” and "Something's Got a Hold on Me," died at age 73.

- Marianne Gingrich, the second ex-wife of Newt Gingrich, told ABC News in an exclusive interview that her former husband is not fit to serve as president. She also said that Newt wanted an open marriage after Marianne caught him having an affair with Callista, who is now Newt’s third wife. The interview with Marianne will air at 11:35 p.m. EST tonight on “Nightline.” She said she agreed to the interview so that voters would know about Newt’s character.

- "I believe Newt is a conservative visionary who can transform our country. We've had our differences, which campaigns will inevitably have, and Newt is not perfect, but who among us is?" – Rick Perry, talking at a news conference in which he announced he’s dropping out of the race for president and is backing Newt Gingrich.

- "It is in keeping with the general reputation of corvids. I don't know what to make of it scientifically, but it is a cool example of a play-like behavior in a corvid." - Alan Kamil of the Center for Avian Intelligence at the University of Nebraska, responding to the viral video that shows a crow using a jar lid to sled down a roof several times. Follow the link to see the video.

- Wikipedia, Reddit and several other popular websites went dark Wednesday in protest of anti-piracy bills that they say would harm Internet business. Wikipedia’s page was black and read, "Imagine a World Without Free Knowledge." Google also got in on the act, though it didn’t shut down – it’s homepage has a black bar over its name.

- “You get back on board! That is an order! There is nothing else for you to consider. You have sounded the ‘Abandon ship.’ Now I am giving the orders. Get back on board. Is that clear?” – Reuters translation of the Italian coast guard talking to the captain of the sinking cruise ship. The captain is facing charges even as bodies are still being discovered in the wreckage.

- "Waiting was definitely the worst," she said. "Because we didn't know who was going to be coming, how much longer we would have to wait." - Amanda Warrick, who was on the Costa Concordia cruise ship, talking about the panic and fear as the ship sank. Rescuers said they had combed the parts of the ship that was above water, leading to a loss of hope that 16 missing people would be found alive.

- Internet retailer Zappos is having its 24 million customers reset their accounts after their system was hacked. The company said hackers were able to collect names, addresses, the last four digits of their credit cards and more. All Zappos.com customers now must reset their accounts, after the company shut down the system to prevent further attacks.

Video of the week

Two planes narrowly escaped a mid-air collision because of an air traffic controller. Watch the report below.

GateHouse News Service

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